What is a Socialiser?

A socialiser is someone who cares for one of our dogs for an amount of time to ensure that they get out to explore the world.

Why you should become a Socialiser:

Socialising is a rewarding experience for both you and our dog. It allows you the opportunity to interact with a wonderfully intelligent animal, and gives our dog the exposure and experience of the outside world. You will also feel great with the knowledge that you are helping train a dog that will one day change someone’s life forever.

What is expected of a Socialiser?

A socialiser is expected to be able to take our dog out to experience a variety of different places and people. This means taking the dog to the supermarket, restaurants, pubs, social gatherings, public transport etc. This also means exposing them to children of all ages, and various other animals like cats, horses, cows, sheep etc.

You will also be expected to help with our dogs training. We will give you a list of commands for our dog, so that you know what he/she might need to work on. At the end of the socialising visit we also expect you to fill out a socialiser form. This is used to give us feedback on what our dog did well, but also what it didn’t. This is to ensure that we are kept up to date with any additional training that might be required as we move closer towards them being partnered.

There is no issue if you have well-behaved children and domesticated animals, and this is in fact encouraged, as it means our dog will be able to get to interact with even more people and animals.

We have a wide variety of socialisers who have our dogs for a number of different time periods. Some are only capable of having dogs for the weekend, others have them weeks at a time, and some are even placed for months!

All food, bedding, leads, jackets etc. are provided by us at no extra cost to you. We do, however, ask that you are able to pick the dog up for the socialising period and drop the dog back after the period has ended. This is due to the fact that we are exceptionally busy training our dogs and doing fundraising, and we simply don’t have the time.

If, for whatever reason, the dog becomes unwell or you have any concerns, big or small, feel free to contact us via the various ways down at the bottom of the page, or on the website in general. Vets cost a lot of money, and most of the time we ourselves are able to help and deal with any concerns you may have. This will not cost you anything.

Criteria for being a Socialiser:

To be a socialiser you will need the following things:

A warm heart.

A love of dogs.

Must live within our catchment areas, which are: Dorset, Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Surrey.

A sizable but enclosed garden.

The ability to be able to take the dog on long walks.

A means of personal (car, van) or public (bus, train) transportation, to give you the ability to take our dogs to many different places.

If you want to become a socialiser, we also have a mandatory home visit beforehand. We will come and have a chat with you about why you want to be a socialiser, what time periods you are able to have our dogs for, and to have a brief look around your home to make sure it has everything you’ll need to house one of our lovely dogs! If the home visit goes well, you will then be asked to sign a Socialiser contract. This will go over everything that we have covered on this page and forge a proper agreement between yourself and us.

Ages of Dogs:

The age of the dog you might get varies widely. Sometimes we might give you a younger dog, of around sixth months to a year. Other times we may give you a dog around the age of two to three, who are in the prime of their training. It all depends on who we have available who is able to go out and socialise.

Want to be a Socialiser?

If you believe that you fit all the criteria, then we are more than happy to consider you for a position as a socialiser. Please use any of the contact details down below to get in touch with us, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible to arrange a home visit!